Films and TV shows that feel like Great Expectation by SIENNA SPIRO
A wry, dramatic reckoning with the gap between the life you were promised and the one you're living, sung with cinematic ache and a raised eyebrow.
- Fleabag (2016): A sharp, funny, heartbroken London woman keeps up a performance while her expectations of life quietly crumble.
- Frances Ha (2013): A young woman's dreams and reality drift apart, told with humour and tenderness.
- Great Expectations (1946): The classic story of ambition, longing and the cost of chasing the life you imagined, which echoes the title.
- Phantom Thread (2017): Lush orchestral romance, with idealised love tangled up with control and disappointment.
- Normal People (2020): Aching young-adult yearning, where what people hope for and what they manage to say never quite match.
- Past Lives (2023): A bittersweet look at the lives you imagined and the ones you ended up with.
- Dead Ringers (1988): Pick a lesser-known gem instead: swap in Daisies
- I May Destroy You (2020): A smart, messy London story of a young woman rebuilding herself after the life she planned is upended.
